The present techniques relate to processors. More specifically, the techniques relate to handling of software translation prefetch instructions in processors.
Cache memory may significantly improve performance in computer processors. Generally, a cache is a relatively small, fast memory used by a central processing unit of a computer that is used to avoid accesses to the computer's main memory. The cache may store copies of data from frequently used main memory locations. By keeping more frequently accessed instructions and data in the faster cache memory, the average memory access time may approach the access time of the cache. A cache miss may be costly because the data must then be fetched from a higher-level cache, main memory, or another processor's cache in a multiprocessor system, which may incur a delay since accessing another memory is slower than accessing a processor's local cache memory.